That Which you Loathe
by wafische
Summary: Danny's newest foe conjures up his inner demons. Story Complete. Please R
1. Chimera

The Ghost-Zone was as endless a sea of macabre and darkness as ever, spiralling around on itself and filled with floating doors. Faceless spirits flew around, searching for an unoccupied residence. Other ghosts roamed the realms behind their doors. It was day-to-day life in the realm of the spirits. Except at Walker's prison, where the warden was supervising the moving of a high-security prisoner to a new cellblock. A large cage with little slits in place of bars held the prisoner as he was being moved on a track to the new cell. The cage was flanked by five guards on either side, all looking deadly serious. Even the other prisoners sensed that this wasn't a situation to joke about. Walker stayed in his office, watching the movement on the security cameras.

"Watch it!" he yelled over the intercom as the metal cage began to slip off the track. The guards on the right quickly moved up against it, pushing it back on. But the prisoner inside had sensed the disturbance. He began slamming himself around inside the cage, knocking it left and right across the track. The guards, caught by surprise, just stared in shock.

"Don't just stand there!" Walker screamed, "Use your night-sticks! Take that punk down!" remembering the weapons in their hands, the guards flew up against the cage. Some on both sides held it in place the best they could while the others fitted their nightsticks into the small slits, opening fire. The flashes from the green of their sticks and the howls of the prisoner poured out from the slits not crammed up with nighsticks. Yet the prisoner still did not give up. The ramming continued, and despite the best efforts of the guards, the cage still shook violently. One especially hard ram to the right, and the cage leapt off the track, rolled over the guards on that side, and skidded out onto the floor. It then began to blast forward, sparks flying out from behind and beneath it. The guards stared after it, feeling like idiots for not foreseeing this possibility. The prisoner was firing out energy blasts through the slits to propel the cage along!

"Get after him!" Walker commanded. But it was too late for the ten guards by the track. Those in the rest of the compound were placed on high alert, rushing out to the front of the building to head him off. They formed a wall of ghosts, their shields raised up as an added device to hold the cage back. Through the corner of his eye and through the slits of his cage the prisoner saw them. He increased the power and speed of his attack ten-fold, blasting towards them with such force that they went flying like bowling pins. Then the cage crashed into the main doors, flinging them open and shooting out into The Ghost-Zone.

"_After him!_" Walker cried. But now it was too late for anyone to catch up to him. The cage kept going on. And it just happened that in its path was a portal leading out into a lab in Amity Park. In this lab, Jack Fenton was hard at work on the controls to The Fenton Portal, whistling to the tune of "Dixieland." He had just finished re-setting the access codes and testing them out when the cage flew out of the non-open doors and skidded into the room, sending sparks flying and demolishing a table on the far side of the room.

"What the heck?" Jack shouted, "Maddie! I think we've got something!" he ran upstairs to get his wife. As he left, the prisoner began ramming repeatedly against the back of the cage; the door. He began leaving indentions and imprints in the door, then finally, adding in an energy blast, he blew it back into the portal, flying out into the middle of the room. His face was green, with more than a passing resemblance to that of Maleficent. He was draped in flowing black robes like the wings of a bat and in his hand held a sceptre, a black diamond mounted at the top. His name was Chimera, and at long last he had escaped from prison.

_(He's a Phantom)  
(Danny Phantom)_

**_Yo, Danny Fenton, he was just fourteen  
When his parents built a very strange machine  
It was designed to view a world unseen_**

_(He's gonna catch 'em all cuz he's Danny Phantom)  
_  
**_When it didn't quite work  
His folks, they just quit  
But then Danny took a look inside of it  
There was a great big flash  
Everything just changed  
His molecules got all rearranged!_**

_(Phantom, Phantom)_

**_When he first woke up  
He realized  
He had snow white hair  
And glowing green eyes  
He could walk through walls,  
Disappear, and fly!  
He was much more unique than the other guy! _**

It was then that he knew what he had to do  
He had to stop all the ghosts  
That were coming through  
He's here to fight  
For me and YOU!

_(He's gonna catch 'em all cuz he's Danny Phantom)  
(He's gonna catch 'em all cuz he's Danny Phantom)_

**_Gonna catch them all cuz he's_** _Danny Phantom_

**_What You Loathe_**

It was a normal day at Casper High. Mr. Lancer's second-hour English class was in session and, as was usually the case, half the class had tuned out Lancer's reading of _The Curse of Capistrano_. Danny was slumped down in his chair, his eyes half-shut and huge bags under his eyes. Tucker's head was resting on his desk, an annoyed look on her face. Sam had her back up against her chair, her arms crossed. They'd been like this the entire time. Those last 30 seconds of the class seemed to be taking forever to happen, and Lancer kept on reading. Finally, after what felt like ten minutes, the bell rang.

"I want a five-page summary what I just read you due tomorrow," Lancer shut the book, "Good day," everyone slowly pulled themselves out of the room and out the door. Lancer watched them head out, then sat down at his desk, going over his lesson plans, whistling to the tune of _Lawrence of Arabia_ as he flipped through his papers. He was so caught up in this that he didn't notice the figure fly up outside his window, his robes flowing out around and under him like wings and a sceptre in his hand. Chimera stared into the classroom, eyeing the bald man and making motions with his fingers over the jewel in his sceptre. He did this for several minutes. The harder and deeper he looked through the glass and in on Lancer, the faster his fingers moved. Eventually a swirling, dimly lit mess of cloudy vapour began to form within the jewel. As he focused more and more on Lancer, the clouds began to take form. Soon after the ghost had decided he had all that he needed, and held the sceptre up to his face, his eyes going from Lancer to within the jewel. The image that he needed appeared before him. He smiled at what he saw. He then turned his eyes back to Lancer and spread his arms out, opening up his cloak like a bat unfolding itself for the nighttime flight.

"_Tá mé go dona_," he hissed. His body went rigid for a moment, then began to dissolve, first into the black silhouette of a bat surrounded by green, then a swirl of black and green that passed through the window and swept around the room. Lancer was blissfully unaware of its presence, still focused entirely on his lesson plans. The swirl of colours floated up and gathered itself at the ceiling; just above Lancer; before plunging into him. The second it had completely entered his body, Lancer dropped his papers, threw himself back against his chair involuntarily, and threw his hands to his head, screaming with agony. The swirl left his body immediately afterwards, assembling back into Chimera. Yet Lancer continued yelling and clawing at his skull, hoping in vain it would stop the sudden blaze of fire spreading through the inside of his mind. Chimera took in his pain with a sly smile. He turned his body to the door and, with a last look at his victim, flew out, dissolving back into the swirl of colour and heading down through the halls. Lancer was left in all his agony.

"Catcher in the Rye!" he managed to get out through teeth clenched shut. His legs began alternating from going stiff to kicking out like crazy and the fire in his mind was still in full burn. Yet something seemed to be shooting up from that fire. Thoughts were coming out from it. They had not only survived it, but also seemed to be burning with a newfound strength and clarity along with the fire. These thoughts were not the kind he usually dwelled on. They were thoughts of leaving teaching. Thoughts of dis-respecting the authorities. Thoughts of being rude. Thoughts of causing trouble. Of breaking the rules. Of leading others to do so…and worse. And it made sense why he didn't dwell on these thoughts. These were all the things that he hated! There was nothing he loathed more than a person who embodied all these traits. But there was something about them this time that was unusual. He didn't hate them any less. The way they were burning away at the inside of his skull with the fire made him hate them more than ever! And yet…

…And yet he _liked it_.

He_ liked _the burning. He _liked_ the presence of these thoughts. He _liked_ how they couldn't get out of his mind. And he _liked_ how they seemed to be taking over.

Part of his mind managed to hang onto sense, and as the fight between sense and insanity began, Lancer's kicking grew worse, and his body began going into spasms. The fire died down, but the war of thoughts in his mind took over. Thrown into the mix was a song. A loud, blaring, ghostly tune, courtesy of someone who not only embellished all the things Lancer hated, but managed to influence his students into trampling over his body on their way out of school. The three elements continued to fly around in his mind, the spasms of his body worse than ever and his screams loud enough to break glass when…it all stopped. His body relaxed, almost melting into liquid, and his mind emptied of all thought. Lancer leaned forward in his chair again, breathing heavily and soaked with sweat. He remained like this for some time. Then he began to laugh. It wasn't his laugh. It was a high-pitched, oily, wicked laugh that certainly didn't belong to Slade Lancer. As he looked up from his desk, the look on his face was one of pure, hate-made, evil insanity. Still laughing, he reached up with one hand to rip off his tie, the other hand knocking the entire covering of his desk to the floor.


	2. Into Oblivion

The lunch line for school food was short that day, mainly because the chef was making her infamous bean tacos. Danny, Sam and Tucker had been sure to bring their own lunches. They were seated at their usual table, Tucker scarfing down his all-meat sandwich and Sam quietly eating her salad. Danny, however, had not touched his food. He stared at it, his eyes barely open, his head hung low. He looked like he was going to fall face-first into his food any minute.

"Rough night?" Tucker asked through bites of his sandwich.

"Thirteen ghosts…," Danny muttered, not looking up, "All night…no sleep…" his head now went intangible and fell into his sandwich…or at least it would have. Instead, his head fell through his sandwich and into the table. It took a few minutes for him to catch himself, and when he did, it was only with a half-hearted effort that he lifted his face so it was barely above his food and let it become tangible again.

"So? One sleepy day at school's not too bad," Tucker shrugged. Danny now held up his latest grade; it was the assignment Lancer had given them from last night. A large, red "F" was in the right-hand corner.

"Well…" Tucker swallowed a bit more of his sandwich then he intended, "At least things at home are…"

"Dad saw last grade…grounded for a week," Danny's eyes now went completely shut and he fell face-first into his sandwich. This time, his head did _not _go intangible. And, as he had gone a bit overboard with the mustard when making the sandwich this morning, the yellow, liquid-like contents proceeded to fly out and land all over Tucker and Sam.

"I was gonna ask you if you were gonna eat that, but on second thought, I'll pass," Tucker wiped the mustard off his glasses (some that, in turn, also landed on Sam, who was now less than thrilled about this day's lunch hour).

"Any chance you could get more sleep after hunting ghosts and avoid this problem?" Sam asked, flinging the mustard to the floor. Danny yawned, then lowered his head back into his lunch, mumbling.

"That's a no," the sound that singalled the beginning of announcement via intercom now rang throughout the building. Everyone unconsiously prepared to tune out whatever followed. Not only was the announcer more boring than Ben Stein's voice, but the bulletins rarely had any affect on their day and often involved bus schedules that never worked out to begin with. This state of inattentiveness soon vanished.

"HELLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOO, CASPER HIGH!" a high-pitched, oily voice screamed over the intercom, nearly knocking everyone's eardrums back against their brains. To follow the voice, the blaring noise of an electric guitar took over the building, cranking away at a rather familiar tune for the students of Casper High…

_Yeah, Ohh-ooooo_

_  
Oh, Ember! You will remember.  
_

_Ember, one thing remains!  
_

_Ember, so warm and tender!  
_

_You will remember my name!_

As the song began winding down into electronic noise from the guitar, the students broke into applause that was even more deafening than the song. No one had really given much thought to what had happened to Ember McLaine (no one really remembered much of the time she was around either), but their tastes hadn't changed all that much. The cheering rang throughout the school, through classrooms to the halls and into the cafeteria. Tucker joined in for a moment, but catching the look Sam was giving him, quickly ceased. As he did, he noticed something.

"Where's Danny?" their friend had disappeared without a sound.

-

Danny stepped through the wall, invisible and intangible, and out into the hall, where the wild cheering of the students continued. He went tangible again when he was sure no one would notice. Any signs that he was tired had faded away, and any slump to his stance was straightened. He had a dead-serious expression on his face, and his eyes were flaring green. They remained this way as he ran down the hallway towards the main office. As he reached it, he threw himself up against the wall by the door, his eyes finally fading back to their usual icy blue. He leaned forward just enough so he could look into the office. What he saw had his expression immediately jump from grim to shocked.

Mr. Lancer sat at the desk in the office, but he was far from his usual half-meanie, half-softie self. His tie was gone, and his shirt was loosened at the collar. He had a maniacle grin on his face, his eyes seeming to blaze with a rebellious insanity that would never have been there on a usual day, and his breath came through his teeth in hisses that sounded like a cartoon-like snicker. A large boombox and CD player were hooked up and set by the mic, blasting Ember's song away over the school intercom. Lancer was drumming his fingers to the noise, staring into space with his crazy look.

Danny's eyes were just about popping out of his skull, his mouth agape. This had to have been the wierdest, strangest, and most disturbing thing he'd ever seen…and he fought ghosts. There was no way…this couldn't be…Lancer _hated_ this kind of behaviour! This had to violate at least three school rules, and Lancer usually lost his temper at one! This time created some problems with ghost-hunting, but that was beside the point! _And_ he hated Ember!

"Mr…Mr. Lancer?" Danny asked, a bit cautiously. His English teacher didn't appear to be too stable at the moment.

"What do you want, Fenton?" the way Lancer spat is answer out, Danny found himself backing away a few steps.

"Uh…I…what's with the music?" Danny smiled weakly.

"What's it to you?" Lancer rose up and marched over to Danny, who backed up even more. It was an attempt at a mafia-type voice. It was so bad that one might have thought he was all normal, but too much else convinced Danny this wasn't the case.

"Well…I thought you hated Ember," Lancer's maniacal glare melted away, and Danny thought he saw fear pass through the eyes of his teacher.

"I know, Danny…" Lancer said, his voice shaking, "I know. But I…" Lancer never finished. He began shaking firecly and stumbled back, falling over the chair. He stayed on the floor from there, clutching his bald head and grinding his teeth against each other.

"Mr. Lancer?" Danny gulped. He gingerly approached, reaching his hand out towards his teacher. Before he could reach him, Lancer shot his head back up, the insane glare back in his eye worse than ever.

"Get out, Fenton," he hissed. Danny didn't know what to do now. He didn't move. Lancer rose back to his feet, casting a horrible shadow over Danny's face, which was slowly getting more and more pale.

"You heard me," Lancer smirked, "GET OUT!" he swung his hands behind him and lifted the chair high above his head, and Danny was convinced that he had every intent of bringing it down upon him. He quickly leapt out of the room, slipping and crashing into the wall on his way out. Sam and Tucker came running up at that moment.

"Ember strikes again?" Tucker asked. The intercom went off at that moment.

"Attention, students!" Lancer yelled in the same oily voice as before, "Your Danny Fenton has just proceeded to get on my nerves! Please feel free to get away with any bullying you may have in mind for him! That will be all."

"I wish," Danny said as Lancer finished, pointing to the main office. Sam and Tucker looked in. Lancer was glaring out at them like the Joker, once again hissing his breaths in as if he were snickering.

"Someone had a bad day today," Sam observed, her voice shaking a bit.

"Is it a ghost thing?" Tucker helped Danny up.

"My ghost-sense didn't go off," Danny brushed the dust off his shirt, "but unless Lancer lost it I can't think of any…"

"Hey, Fenton!" an annoying voice called from the hall. Dash was a few feet away from them, a nasty smirk all over his face.

"Lancer's a bit loony today, Fentonio," Dash slammed his right hand into his left, "but I can't say I don't like the new him better!" before he could start towards them, however, a swirl of green and black swooped down on him like a bat, carrying him down through the halls. Danny's ghost-sense went off and, for once in his life, he actually felt he had to save Dash. Two ghost-rings shot open across his middle, drifting over his body. Within moments he was Danny Phantom, flying down the halls with Sam and Tucker on his tail.

Dash's jacket lay in the floor a while down. It looked there was something still in it, but it didn't seem like it could be Dash; it looked smaller. The ghost was nowhere in sight. Danny touched back down on the ground and approached Dash (if he was still in it) quietly. He didn't want to make any sudden moves or noises; there was no time to change back to Fenton if he was seen and he didn't have an explanation handy. Whatever was inside the jacket began to stir. The figure inside slowly propped himself up with his hands as the jacket slid off his back. What Danny saw made him jump back.

It was still Dash; there was no mistaking that; but he looked about as "un-Dash" as he possibly could. His hair looked extremely faded and huge bags hung under his eyes. The eyes themselves looked tired and sad, lacking any life at all. He let his mouth hang low and open like a monkey, a quiet moaning sound escaping from it. And his entire body looked thinner, smaller, and less robust.

Danny had plenty of reasons to want this to happen to Dash and had often wished that something like this _would_ happen. Under normal circumstances, he might have considered it a bit funny. But after seeing _how_ it had happened, and seeing it now…he almost felt _sorry_ for Dash.

He prepared to say something when his ghost-sense went off. He didn't have to look far. The bat-like swirl of colour was assembling itself to his right, slowly taking form. A figure appeared, with a face like some witch Danny had seen in a movie before and black flowing robes that seemed to be like the wings of a bat. In his right hand was a sceptre mounted with a black diamond. He glared over at Danny, an icy calm look on his face.

"What's with the male Maleficent get-up?" Danny heard Sam say behind him (_that_ was the witch!), "It's awesome!"

"You still watch Disney movies?" Tucker asked, a hint of mocking in his tone.

"Guys…" Danny muttered. He didn't need another fight between those two distracting him now.

The ghost (whatever his name was) swept his sceptre out before him, his left hand gliding over so it was just barely avoiding touching the diamond. Keeping his stare on Danny, he began moving his fingers over the sceptre. He kept this going, his stare seeming to grow deeper and his fingers seeming to move faster. Danny watched him cautiously, then thought back to Dash, who was still on the floor. This may have been what the ghost used on him. In any case, he decided that standing around wasn't the best idea. Charging up a spectral blast in his hands, he let it loose on the figure, blasting him up agaisnt the wall. Unfazed, it became a swirl of green and black yet again and, taking the shape of a bat, flew out through the ceiling. Danny flew out after him.

He found the ghost hovering well above the school. He flew up to his level and readied himself for battle, readying another spectral blast. The ghost eyed him with an odd expression for a moment, making no movements. Then he gave Danny the most sinister, hateful, and menacing smile he'd ever seen. He held out his left hand as if he had a card between his index and middle fingers, his palm facing out towards Danny. Then he pulled his hand back sharply as if to look at this invisible card, though his eyes never moved from the ghost-boy a few feet in front of him. A breath managed to hiss out from his mouth and hit this imaginary card. Danny just watched in annoyance and confusion. _What_ was this guy doing!

"_Tá mé go dona_," the ghost hissed. He pulled his arm back over his right shoulder, then flung his hand forward as if to throw the card. Nothing materialised. Yet Danny felt like his spine was being ripped out from behind him. Some great, invisible force was ripping away at him inside and out, trying to pull his body to pieces. A thousand grappling hooks were being fired into his skin on all sides, yanking and tearing away, trying to pull away something. The searing, ripping horror forced out a scream from his windpipe, the sound seeming to echo all around him. The pulling and ripping at his body went on, the scream growing louder and the echoes stronger. Finally it happened. Like a plank snapped in half, Danny Fenton went flying back and out of sight, while Danny Phantom stayed hovering in place. Then ropes flew up from under him and yanked him down, his body spiralling out of control in a nose-dive. He saw the school grounds coming closer to his face, and yet at the same time he saw a spiralling vortex of black and purple, spinning all around him and sucking him in like a great black hole. This slowly took over the image of the grounds. Before it conquered his vision entirely, he managed to see Tucker and Sam come running out of the building and him closing in on them before the vortex consumed him, sucking him down into empty darkness. Within this darkness, Danny found himself immediately unable to stay awake, and soon he was falling, a sleeping figure.


	3. The First World

The sound of water flowing gently nearby stirred Danny to consciousness, though he did not open his eyes. Along with the water, other sounds of nature filled his ears, from a bird chirping to a soft breeze rustling around the leaves above him. He could feel soft, patchy sunlight filtering through and landing on his face, helping him to fully get his wind back. After a few minutes he opened his eyes and sat up.

He was in the middle of a forest. The ground was soft and damp (but not muddy) and the temperature was mild. A small stream a few feet away from him provided the source of running water. The trees were tall, lush, green, and in good shape, ranging from deciduous trees to ferns to evergreens. The forest looked very old, with moss along the trunks of many of the trees and the foliage being so thick.

"What the heck…?" Danny muttered as he looked around. If this was that ghost's idea of sending his foe into a dimension where they'd be forever doomed, then he had a very unusual idea on what was horrible to go through. This place would have been a utopia for Sam.

Thinking about his friends and the ghost brought him back to his senses. He had to get back to Amity Park! He readied himself for take-off, but as his sense caught up to him again, he realised he had no idea where he was or which way was to the park.

"OK…" he said to himself, "This may be a problem," he dropped his take-off stance and looked around.

"Alright," he sighed, "I don't know where I am, a ghost is at my school, but at least I can think. I'll just follow the forest for a while and eventually I'll find something," his lower half becoming a ghostly tail, Danny floated up, stopping just above the treetops, and headed straight forward.

The forest seemed to go on forever in all directions, with no clearings and no signs of thinning out into open land. The stream seemed to be the same way, and from the sounds Danny heard in some places, it was filled with frogs. The sun seemed stuck up in the middle of the sky, neither rising nor setting, so he had no way of knowing which way was east and which way was west, which meant he couldn't find north. Then again, he didn't know which direction Amity Park was anyway.

He kept flying for several minutes. The sun still didn't move and the forest didn't let up. By now he was getting pretty tired of his lack of progress. He was about to try flying in another direction when a noise passed by his ear. It was the sound of some strange punk music. It wasn't anything like the type of music that was considered "in," but it sounded very close to several CDs Sam had. Looking around, Danny saw it was coming from a clearing in the forest.

"Huh," Danny shrugged, "Must've missed that before," he flew over and touched down.

In front of him was a gigantic castle, made in the Gothic style of architecture from the 13th Century. Though nowhere near as tall as any of the trees, the building towered well above him, the doors alone being ten feet high. The tympanum surrounding the door depicted some religious scene (which one Danny had no idea). Above the tympanum, an elaborate frame laid over it, was a rose window. Eroded gargoyles and monstrous statues adorned the sides and tops of the castle towers. Again Danny was reminded of Sam and her interests.

The music was coming from inside, so Danny assumed someone was home. He reached for the doorknocker and hit it against the door three times. On the third time, the door creaked open on its own. A strange hissing sound seemed to echo around over the music.

Danny hesitated for a moment. Something felt seriously amiss here. But this was the only sign of civilisation he'd seen, so this was his best chance to find his way back to Amity Park. With a quick gulp, he headed inside.

The interior of the castle vaguely reminded him of Vlad's home in Wisconsin, but the colours were very different. Purple, black, and green were the palette for this abode, with rich curtains and velvet rugs covering every window and piece of floor in the building. The lighting came from chandeliers and fixtures mounted like torches. The lights were dim and tinted blue, casting a soft glow on everything. The ceiling was higher and done in a more medieval style than Vlad's caste, and the hallways and corridors were longer and narrower, branching off into doorways and smaller corridors. The music seemed to come from no one room in particular, instead echoing throughout the building.

"Uh…hello?" Danny called, "Um, sorry to barge in, but I'm kinda lost, and…" there was no answer, "Do – do you know how to get to Amity Park, by any chance?" still no answer, "OK…um, do you know where the nearest town is, by any chance?" there was no reply, "Are you not here, by any chance?" Danny added in a sarcastic tone. When there was still no answer, any hope of someone actually being home vanished. Danny sighed, his eyes darting around. There wasn't a speck of dust anywhere, everything was in excellent condition – there was no sign that the house was deserted. And the house was so big that if someone came back, they wouldn't necessarily have to know anyone had been inside while they were gone. Plus, he had ghost powers. Still…

"Well…" Danny looked around a bit more, then shrugged, "I'm sure they won't mind," closing the door behind him, he headed down the hall.

The chandeliers and torchlights continued down through the halls. The walls were covered with odd posters and paintings. Danny hadn't taken an art class since grade school, but he remembered enough so he knew that all the paintings were done in the style of Expressionism, Surrealism, or Romanticism; it alternated between the three. None of the paintings were bright, and none of them were necessarily what one would call "happy," but only a few were outright depressing or scary, and many were beautiful in a weird, quirky kind of way that reminded Danny even more of Sam's interests.

A door at his right was cracked open. Not really thinking about where he was going inside the house, he headed inside. The room was made of red brick, with pantries and cabinets abound, a refrigerator by the door on the other side of the room, and a table in the middle set with plates and silverware. It had to be the kitchen.

"Whoa," Danny felt his stomach rumble, "Guess I never actually ate that sandwich. I'm sure they've got some food to spare," he opened up one pantry, but the only thing in it was lettuce. He opened up another; carrots. Yet another; potatoes. Danny quickly began to reconsider his appetite.

"I'm not _that_ hungry," he shut the pantries quickly. Not expecting to find anything, he opened the fridge. It was filled with fruit.

"Well, at least it's better than leafs," Danny took a handful of blackberries and headed out the other door by the fridge, finishing off his handful in one bite.

In this next room, the music echoing throughout the house changed. The main title for _Edward Scissorhands_ took over. The room he was in now reminded him a lot of Sam's room; the same type of bed was here, the same posters, the same candles…everything. The only thing missing was her window.

"OK…" Danny said, a stunned look on his face, "This is getting too weird," this house, this forest…wherever the bloody hell he was, it seemed like that ghost had thrown him right into Sam's dream world or something. Still in shock, Danny quickly backed out through the kitchen and into the hallway, continuing down until he reached another corridor.

In this corridor, the music changed yet again. Another theme from _Edward Scissorhands_; the sweet, tender, non-creepy music that played during the romantic moments of the movie; began to echo through the building. A door ended this corridor; a DO NOT ENTER plaque was mounted on it and the door was locked.

"Wonder what's in here?" Danny couldn't help but smile mischievously. If this part of the house was as close to Sam's personality as everything else, he and Tucker could have some good mocking material. He prepared to go intangible. But, just then, a high, horrible screech, like the cry of a bat, overtook the house. A huge sweep of green and black plunged down through the ceiling, went over everything around Danny, and fell through the floor, taking the bat-screech with it. Danny stayed where he was for a moment, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did. He shrugged it off and turned his attention back to the door, grinning again.

Suddenly, the ground started shaking. It was a slight tremble at first, but then began to erupt into a full earthquake. Chandeliers and lights began falling from the ceilings and crashing to the floor. Paintings shook off the walls. Tables and pots were tripping over themselves. Danny stumbled back, leaning on a beam to support himself and keeping away from any falling objects.

"If this is really one of Sam's secrets, and this is what she uses to guard it in her mind," Danny commented, "I don't think I'll bring this up any time soon!" the walls and the ceiling of the castle now began to crumble. The light from outside began to pour in as the roof fell to pieces, debris piling up inside and outside the castle. The locked door remained in place the entire time, thought stone around it collapsed like everything else. The beam Danny was supporting himself with crumbled away, and he found himself landing face-first into the ground. Finally, the ground stopped shaking. Everything settled down. Danny pulled himself back onto his feet. The only thing left of the castle was the mess of crumbled stone and the one door.

Just as Danny was starting to relax, he felt himself fall back as if he were standing on a carpet that had been yanked out from under him. A huge skyscraper had just shot out of the ground before him, smashing the door into pieces. The building was done in a very modern style of architecture; sleek, glass, and little in the way of design. Another tower shot out nearby. This one was smaller, but still in the same style. Another one popped up to the first one's left, this one the tallest of them all. Then came another. And another. Danny felt the ground directly underneath him shake, then shot upward, his back feeling like it had been rammed with a solid wall of steel. He was now on top of a skyscraper. He quickly jumped off and began to fly back down, but as he was looking back at the building he had ridden up on, he did not notice the one coming up below him. The edge of the building caught him in the jaw, knocking him to the side, where he collided with yet another building coming up. He began to plunge downward towards the ground between the two buildings, and he just barely managed to catch himself and go intangible before another one came flying up at him. He quickly flew out and headed straight forward, staying intangible as a city continued to shoot out of the ground.

All of the buildings were of the same kind; faceless, unimaginative, modern architecture. The kind that Sam hated. The streets and sidewalks seemed to roll out from nowhere as the city emerged, lightpoles and street signs growing out from them as they fell into place. The forest around the city was burning, the flames quickly dying away and leaving the trees disintegrated. Danny was now pretty sure that, whatever that bat-thing was, it wasn't the guard for that door.

The city continued to emerge, and Danny could begin to make out the interiors of these skyscrapers through the glass. All were either the standard cubicles of corporate America or apartments that were the perfect reproduction of everything Sam considered to be shallow. Pop music could be heard echoing out through open windows (and even some closed ones) and down below in the streets. As the last of the forest around him burned away and the city finally stood in its place, one song in particular caught his ear; Ember's. A whirl of hot blue and black caught his eye. To his right, a glowing blue flame with brief sparks of black began taking on definite shape.

The flame's final form caught Danny by surprise. It was not Ember; there was too much about her that was like Paulina. And it was not Paulina; there was too much about her that was like Ember. And there was something about her that was not like either of them; if he looked hard enough, Danny could have sworn that the figure looked like a seriously out-of-her-mind Sam. She was dressed in Ember's type of clothes, but the way they were made was like Paulina's outfit. Her flaming blue hair was styled like Paulina's when Ember was controlling Casper High. She had a guitar; it wasn't quite identical to Ember's, but it was damn near close.

She locked eyes with Danny and the stayed suspended in the air for a moment, shooting death glares at each other. Danny now had absolutely no idea what was going on, and his ghost-sense hadn't gone off when this girl appeared, but he could tell she wasn't friendly. The girl gave him a nasty grin, turning something on her guitar's settings. Then, slamming her fingers down along the strings, a wave of red spectral energy flew out from the instrument and rammed into Danny. His body soared back towards a building, crashing through the glass of the window and falling into an apartment that looked a lot like what he would imagine Paulina's room to be like. The girl came flying in after him, her guitar raised like a sword. Danny quickly conjured up a spectral dome to block the attack. Both pulled back, the girl glaring and Danny readying himself to attack.

"I don't know who you are, and I don't know where we are, but I know that you've really caught me on a bad day!" a spectral blast flew out of Danny's hands, knocking the girl back outside and up against a nearby building. She managed to get her wind back as Danny flew out toward her, a hard punch ready. She flew out of the way, his fist smashing into the support between the windows and leaving shatters in the glass on both.

The girl floated up across from him and let loose another blast from her guitar, which Danny quickly dodged. But the outer edge of the blast managed to singe his elbow.

"Augh!" he gripped his arm. For a singe, that sure stung a lot! He was really starting to get ticked off by all this. He raised his hands above his head and let loose a pure-white spectral blast. It made a direct hit on the girl, knocking her back into another building. In fact, it not only knocked her into it, but the force of the blast and her point of impact sent the whole skyscraper caving in on itself!

"Whoa!" Danny's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, "I'd better start watching how much I put into those blasts!" he watched as the building fell down to the ground, piles of smoke and ash billowing up. He was starting to worry. He hadn't meant to do _that_ much damage to the girl. And now that she didn't seem to be coming back up, he couldn't get it out of his mind her resemblance to Sam.

Suddenly the sky started fading into black. The ground and the city with it seemed to drop down and disappear beneath him. Swirls of purple entered the black around him, and a powerful force below him seemed to be sucking everything down. Danny tried to fight it, but it was too powerful. Within moments, he was being dragged back down into the abyss.


	4. The Second World

Danny went from falling down to shooting straight back, landing hard up against the wall and sliding down to the floor. He had come out of a swirling green portal and into a very familiar looking room filled with test tubes, beakers, burners, and ghost weaponry.

"The lab?" Danny shook his head, "This is getting too weird," things were about to get worse. There was a familiar face in this room, a blue fat one in overalls and a cap.

"I am The Box Ghoooooooost!" the little nimrod proclaimed, "And now that I have discovered this lair that makes great use of all that is cardboard, square, and container in design, I shall…"

"Look," Danny flew over to him and grabbed him by the shirt collar, "I am really not having a good day. And, considering how annoying your box puns are when I am having a good day, you can imagine what I'm going to do to you on a bad day," his expression showed he wasn't kidding.

"Uh…beware!" The Box Ghost quickly flew into the portal and vanished from sight. Danny sighed.

"Now to try and figure out what the…" yet another familiar, unwelcome screeching sound filled the air, and a sweep of green and black passed through the lab quickly. Danny's ghost-sense went off soon after.

"Oh no," Danny muttered. The green of the portal now became red, and the siren for the lab began sounding. A ghost leapt out from the portal, snarling like a wolf. He was huge, as big as Jack (in fact, he looked a little like him). He was completely black, with blazing red eyes, sharp cruel fangs, and two samurai blades strapped to his back in their scabbards. He set his eyes on Danny and roared in his face, whipping out his blades and readying himself for the strike. Danny jumped back just in time, the blades nipping at the edge of his hair and taking a few strands. He went intangible and flew up the stairs. From the noises behind him, he could tell the ghost had followed.

"Don't think I can take him down with just my powers," Danny muttered to himself; the guy practically had spectral energy rising out of his body to make room for it all, "but I know what might help!" he stopped at one door and flew down the spiral staircase to a dark room with one too many medieval torture devices.

"The Fenton Stockades," Danny smirked. There was a small little storage room over by the Fenton Iron Maiden. Within that room were crossbows, bows, and swords…all designed to take down ghosts. Danny took the biggest one that he could carry relatively easily and hid behind the Fenton Iron Maiden, lying in wait. The ghost leapt down to the floor over the staircase, looking all over for his prey. He began to walk toward the Iron Maiden. When he was just one foot short of passing by it, Danny made his move, shooting out a spectral blast and knocking him back against the wall. He then flew forward, his sword raised above his head. The ghost parried with his two blades, and the fight began.

Danny had absolutely no idea how to fight with a sword, and the closest he ever came to doing so before was using a mic stand as a weapon against Ember, but he at least managed to parry all of the ghost's attacks. His blade was wider and heavier than the ghost's swords, and it took him a bit longer to move his around, but the wide blade caught attacks better and it was a good hacking weapon, which was pretty much all he knew how to do. The samurai blades of his opponent were heavy, but he was much stronger than Danny and thus was able to have one in each hand move very quickly. It was he who kept on the offence, constantly lashing out with both his blades in fast, swift motions, only occasionally giving Danny time to get in his own attack, which was always nicely parried. He knew what he was doing, and was being deadly serious about it.

The duel went on for several minutes, Danny making no progress. The ghost was like a tiger on a caffeine rush (and while that might have been something Tucker laughed at, there wasn't anything funny about the situation). The weight of the sword was starting to wear down Danny's strength too. He couldn't keep this up forever.

"I don't have time for this!" he muttered. He parried a blow, then jumped back as quickly as he could, letting loose an energy blast with one hand and tossing his sword aside. The ghost jumped back himself, lining his swords up so they crossed over in front of him. The blades caught the blast like a net, pulling it into the sword and giving it a green glow. Then, pulling his swords apart from one another, he slashed them forward at a parallel and let loose a razor-sharp blade of spectral power! Danny threw up an energy dome fast to block the attack. But seconds later, the dome blew into nothing and a hot searing pain soared up from around his waist and along both sides of his torso. A heavy weight seemed to knock into him between the two burning sides, knocking him back against the wall. The spectral blades had broken through, slicing Danny along his sides. A few inches deeper, and they would have taken his arms.

The ghost now flung himself forward, screaming like a banshee and his blades held high. Danny managed to pull himself together enough to catch the attack coming. Shooting his hands out, he just managed to catch the blades before they made their landing on his body. Though still worn out and with two long gashes along his torso, he managed to push the ghost back. Then, leaping up, he landed a kick in his stomach, forcing him to let go of his swords. Danny tossed them aside. Now neither of them had weapons. But the ghost didn't seem unnerved by that. In fact, he was wearing a very nasty grin. He squatted down low to the ground and spread his feet apart, letting out a vicious roar. His entire body became a glowing outline of white and green, slowly going into a metamorphosis. He became shorter and slimmer. His hair became spikier. The scabbards disappeared from his back. Soon the glow went away, and in the place of the giant ghost from before stood…_Danny Phantom?_

"What?" Danny shouted. It was right in front of his eyes; the ghost's new form was identical to his. Well, almost identical. This look-alike had dark circles around his eyes, which were both red and green. His teeth were also sharp, exposed in a nasty-looking grin that Danny rarely ever had. But the resemblance was uncanny. And the look-alike, wasting no time in standing around gawking, fired up a red spectral blast and sent Danny flying through the walls and back in to the den, landing upside down in the couch.

"Sleepy morning, teachers going crazy, ghosts that look like Disney villains, weird girls and cities out of nowhere, and now me beating myself up…" Danny recalled everything that had gone wrong today, "…what the heck is going on here?" he didn't have time to think of an answer (not that he had one). His double came soaring out of the Fenton Stockades, snarling just as he had when he was in his samurai form, and grabbed Danny by the neck, turning them both intangible.

They were dragged back down to the lab, where, going solid again, the double sent Danny's spine sprawling back on the tiled floor. He floated above, that nasty grin still plastered all over his face. Danny was really starting to get ticked off. He pulled himself to his feet and clenched his hands tight into fists, readying a pure white spectral blast. The look-alike did the same. They let loose their powers at the same time, the blasts colliding in mid-air and shaking the entire lab.

Neither one gained any leeway with their attacks. Whenever it appeared one would gain ground, the other would push their blast back. The two seemed locked into each other, unable to separate. The force resonating from the collision of the attacks, however, was wearing down the two combatants as much as it was shaking everything else in the lab. They couldn't hold their ground forever. And, by luck or by fate, both slipped up at the same time. Their blasts flew off to the side into the Fenton Portal. However, they did not fall into The Ghost-Zone as everything else did. A blinding flash of light enveloped the entire room, a strange humming sound resonated from the portal, and the blasts seemed to find somewhere else to go. Both Danny and the look-alike threw their hands up to shield their eyes, but Danny kept his at a position where he could squint at the portal. The light made it impossible to see anything clearly. But he thought he could make out something where the portal should be. It looked like…no. It couldn't be. But it could have been…

"Another lab?" he murmured. It was getting harder to make it out, and he didn't think it was possible, but…everything else that could have gone insane so far today had indeed gone crazy. In any case, he soon had other things to worry about. A long, horrible scream of writhing agony shot out from the portal, overcoming every other noise in the room. It rang through Danny's ears, making his eyes shrink in fear. That voice…

As the scream began to fade away, the light started to dim with it. The humming sound now changed, as though it were pulling the light back into the portal. The lab that Danny and the look-alike were in began to settle back to its usual nature. Soon, all appeared to be normal (save for the point of impact left from Danny's being slammed to the floor). Yet the scream still rang in Danny's ears. It sounded like…

"Mom?" the look-alike had taken notice of the scream as well. And his reaction was far different than Danny would have imagined. A look of sheer terror covered his face, and he was even beginning to tremble. Slowly he backed away from the portal. Then, without warning, without reason, without first becoming a glow, he transformed back into the hulking samurai ghost from before and collapsed to his knees, his hands wrapped around his head and his teeth hissing out grunts of pain. His form did not stop there. It seemed to be trying to become something else. The red eyes were beginning to become pink, with pupils starting to show. His skin was going from midnight black to normal skin-tone. And some colour was starting to come through on his clothes. But it didn't last long. With a long, mournful roar, he leapt to his feet, fully back in samurai form. He threw his hands up in the air, and within seconds, the blades from before came flying down the stairs and spinning across the floor. The ghost jumped over to one and raised it high, leaping out at Danny. He quickly ran over to the other sword.

Danny only meant to parry. He only meant to avoid getting his body split in half. But, out of fear, closed eyes, and self-defence, Danny sliced the ghost right across the torso.

The ghost stopped in his attack and looked down at his wound. There was a green line that ran all the way around his upper body, but he appeared to be fine. For those two seconds. Soon the ghost was engulfed in a mini-portal that began pulling away at Danny, as if it had latched several hooks to his uniform and was tugging him in by those hooks. The sword had vanished in his hands, and that distracted him from putting in a full resistance. Within seconds he was being flung through nothingness once again.


	5. The Third World

Though his eyes were shut, Danny could tell he had entered yet another world, for the light coming through his eyelids went from dark and sinister to that of an interior. The feeling of crashing into something heavy and plastic emerged somewhere near his head, and soon he was covered in some liquid and skidding across a carpeted floor. Finally, he felt himself flip over, his legs and rear crashing up against a wall.

"Now what?" Danny spat, sitting upright. He was in a very neat room. Well, mostly neat. The thing he had crashed into turned out to be a water jug, and the contents that hadn't drenched him were now soaking into the carpet. An empty reception desk was right next to the wall he had crashed into and several neat rows of chairs a few feet in front of him. Several health posters, pamphlets on psychology, psychiatry and the mind, and a few plaques and awards adorned the walls. It was the waiting room for a psychiatrist's office.

"Great," Danny muttered, "Now I'm in the land of the shrinks," he got to his feet and began looking around. All of the awards and plaques had the name of the recipient smeared out. He tried making words out of the marks or melted brass, but it was impossible to tell who had been awarded. The awards were mainly for doctoring and surgery, but there were a few from Harvard University. The place was neat, clean, and as normal as a psychiatrist's waiting room possibly could. Jazz would have considered the place the ultimate utopia on Earth.

Staring at plaques on a wall tends to get dull quick, and Danny was soon walking through a wooden door at the far side of the room. A hallway with green carpet and dark wood panelling lay before him, with four doors on each side. On the walls between each door were more awards, but these ones had both the name of the recipient and whoever had given the award rubbed out. The lighting came from two bulbs in the ceiling; not too bright and not too dim. Danny turned to the door nearest to him on his right and phased his head inside. The room look like a surgeon's room, with tools of a surgeon on a table by a bed and odd lighting fixtures, tubes, and tools hanging from the ceiling, the lights way too bright. Danny now had an uneasy feeling about this place.

"Paging Dr. Frankenstein," he said in a sarcastic tone that resembled the lady who usually did school announcements, "your new tools are in," he quickly pulled his head out and continued down the hall.

He decided to look in another door; the fourth one on the right. This time he opened the door with his hand and walked all the way in. This room was white with a wooden floor. It was almost completely empty, save for one object, but this one object seemed to take up eveything. It was a titanium safe, with three huge chains wrapped around it, three big locks clamped around through the chain links in various places, and two tags that read "TOP SECRET!" and "DO NOT TOUCH/OPEN/ANYTHING RELATED TO THOSE TWO!" tied to the outermost chain.

"OK…" Danny was starting to feel creeped out, and after what happened in that castle, he wasn't about to touch that safe. But, without making so much as another inching of his foot, a familiar bat-like screeched filled the room, and green and black came shooting down through the ceiling. Soon, a circle of purple flames with a reddish-green glow surrounded the safe, casting a red glow on the walls. The flames spiraled upward, seeming to leap over the safe to form a definate shape. The shape of a jet-black, flamelike ghost woman with blazing red eyes and a nasty grin.

"Spectra?" Danny jumped back. No…it _couldn't _be!

"Danny!" his old foe hissed in a mock-friendly tone, "How nice to see you again! Enjoying being Public Ghost Enemy #1?" Danny felt his teeth grinding against each other. He threw a ball of energy at his old enemy, but she just flew out of the way. She pulled her hand back and let loose a wave of flame as she threw it forward again, knocking Danny out into the hallway, through the fourth door on the left, and into another room. This room looked like a mini Fenton lab, with a few small Fenton inventions lying on tables. Spectra, flying in after him, grabbed the Portable Fenton Ghost Peeler and aimed it right at his head. He just barely managed to roll to the side in time, and the hole in the floor that the blast left ended just centimeters away from his head.

"I hope that's the high setting," Danny muttered; if it wasn't, he didn't want to see the high setting. Turning his attention back to the fight, he flipped backwards, landing at the far corner of the room. For some reason, this just seemed to make Spectra happy. She sent out another wave of flame, but this one jumped off to the right. It hit a large red button on the wall, and a humming noise started overhead. Danny looked up. He was standing under the spirit sparklers from when Spectra first attacked. He jumped up just before they fired. But as soon as he was airborne, he had to start dodging blasts from the Ghost Peeler again. Spectra wasn't showing any mercy today. Not that she had ever shown mercy before, but she was really going all out today.

Danny could hear the edges of the material on his suit singing; that last blast came too close. He spent too much time examining his wound, however, to notice Spectra flying right at him. She wrapped her cold, icy fingers around his throat and slammed him up against the wall. At her touch, vague but painful images began to run through his mind. Running through the forest, an army of mutant ghost-beasts after him…possesed teachers and classmates holding the Fenton thermos to his head…Sam and Dash…and soon he found that the colour had drained from his face and his body rigid, all the life getting sucked out of him. All of his worst fears and memories were coming up to the surface.

"Not this time…" Danny muttered. He wasn't letting Spectra pull her tricks again. Two aural blasts shot across his body, knocking his foe back. It also shot the Ghost Peeler out of her hand and into his reach. On impulse, he grabbed it and hit the larger of the two triggers. A huge wave of green and white shot out, reaching their target in an instant. Spectra was consumed in a blast so great that Danny was thrown back against the wall before he could raise his hands up to shield his eyes. He could feel the entire room shaking and echoing for a few seconds before everything re-settled. Spectra was gone. Charred streaks ran on the floor and walls in a circular pattern, green ecto-smoke rising up from them. Unlike with the girl before, Danny felt no guilt or worry for whatever had happened to Spectra.

The sound of an iron chuch bell striking the hour came from out of nowhere, rushing into both of Danny's ears and filling his mind. A giant black bat with a green ghostly glow and lavendar eyes shot out of the floor from where Spectra had hovered just moments ago. With a horrible screech, it charged right into Danny, grabbing him with some kind of unseen force and dragging him along, almost by his uniform rather than his person. Soon they found themselves in the same spinning vortext that had taken Danny to the woods to begin with. Here the bat released him, almost tossing him into the blackness around them. Danny immediately began falling, his body spiralling out of control and any attempts to fly only quickening his descent. But the blackness was beginning to fade. An evening sky was coming through. Within a few moments, it was an evening sky. He was falling over Amity Park Park, towards the pained, tense, and unconsious form of Danny Fenton. And within moments, Danny Phantom plunged back into his alter ego, the human form shooting up with a yelp.


	6. Revelations

"Whoa!" Danny gasped. His human form hadn't moved since they separated and he hadn't been out of breath when Phantom was thrown back in, but it felt like he had ran a mile. The sun was almost touching the horizon line and most of the blue was gone from the sky. What little blue remained mingled with the blood-red colour from the sun that was now leaking out into the sky, casting long shadows all over. Despite the magnificent spectacle, Danny was not relaxing, though he did managed to get his breathing back under control.

"Well," he sighed, "at least I'm back…" he turned his head in the direction of the city, and soon felt his jaw drop.

Amity Park had been completely transformed. Modern skylines and townhouses had been overcome by monstrous stone towers and terrifying tangles of steel and granite. Twisted levels of bridges and roads, gnarled signs and lights, and interlocking buildings – as if Hell had erupted through the surface.

"…home?" Danny squeaked, "Where'd the Batman buildings come…" now with the three strange worlds behind him, the incident with the ghost earlier that day came back to him, and he made his deduction.

"The ghost," he muttered to himself, and he quickly went ghost and took off towards the new Amity Park. Within the mess of nightmarish buildings, everything seemed normal – but in reverse. People Danny knew were behaving like the things they most hated – a girl from around the block who hated bugs was charging after a butterfly, Ms. Tetslaff had somehow gotten downtown and was selling violets, and Valerie was now a ghost.

"Danny!" the voice was scarcely above a whisper, but Danny caught and looked down. It was Tucker, and he looked as he always did, though his expression was grim. He was down in an alleyway, with his hand wrapped around the corner of the building and his glasses slightly titled to the side, but he looked all right.

"Tucker!" Danny smiled and dropped down, relieved that his friend had made it through whatever the town had been put through.

"Where have you been, man?" Tucker asked.

"Wish I knew," Danny sighed – he still had no idea where that ghost had sent him, "Where's Sam?" he had noticed she wasn't anywhere to be seen. At that question, Tucker's entire look changed. His eyes became full of fear and his breathing so quiet it was as if it had stopped altogether.

"Tuck," Danny was not starting to worry, "What happened?"

"…Man, I don't even know where to start," Tucker sighed, "That ghost flew into Sam after he cast that weird spell on you, then she started going crazy, then he flew out and went into the city!"

"Why didn't he attack you?"

"'Cause I ran inside before he saw me."

"You _left_ Sam?" Danny roared.

"I ran right back out when he left!" Tucker held his hands up, "Sam turned into some weird girl that looked like Paulina and Ember mixed together. She started throwing blasts at me with her guitar and…"

"Whoa," Danny interrupted, "Hold up. _What_ did you say she turned into?"

"A mix of Ember and Paulina. After a while she started screaming and she…she…well, I think she's gonna live, but…"

"What happened?" Danny demanded. He wasn't liking where this was going, for more reasons than one.

"She just…collapsed. I dunno what was up with her, 'cause no one else was doing it, but she just fell and…she didn't go back to normal, but it was like half-way," Danny looked away from Tucker. He could feel his breathing getting more panicked. He wasn't liking this at all. What had happened over the day was starting to make sense. If he had…he could be jumping to conclusions, but…

Tucker didn't understand what had come over his friend, but it seemed serious. He was about to ask what was going on when he remembered his other piece of bad news.

"That's just the start of it," he said, a hint of apology in his voice, "He started turning the whole city upside down! Ten minutes and all of a sudden we're living in Gotham City! Then Spectra showed up and…"

"_Spectra?_" Danny shouted. Now he was really nervous – not that Spectra had really returned, but that this would confirm his suspicions.

"Yeah. She flew by a few minutes ago. She looked like she was having trouble flying. She touched down somewhere near Casper High. I've been trying to get to your house without that ghost seeing –" he noticed the look of pure terror on Danny's face, and he could see it wasn't from fear of Spectra herself.

"Dude, you OK?" he asked.

"Tucker," Danny took a deep breath before going on, "that ghost made me go to three worlds. One was _exactly_ like all the stuff Sam's nuts over, then it started burning into a city and a girl exactly like what you said Sam turned into. I accidentally hit her too hard with a blast and she got crushed in a building. The second world was the lab at my house. Some big ghost that looked a little like my dad came out and turned into me. We fought, one of our blasts went into the portal, and someone started screaming…it sounded like my mom. The ghost turned back and I accidentally cut him with a sword. Then the third place…it was like Jazz paradise. Spectra showed up, and I kind of…blew her up or something. I didn't know what was going on but now I…I think…" he couldn't bring himself to finish, but Tucker caught on.

"You mean he put you in their heads when he attacked them?"

"Yeah. Sam, my dad, and Jazz."

"Wait. Time out. Why would Jazz turn into Spectra?" something about that didn't add up to Tucker.

"Probably 'cause she ruined her speech," Danny brushed the comment off, "I don't know what that would do to them outside, but I think I might have…I…" he couldn't stand it any longer. He _had _to figure out what had happened! And, without the slightest warning to Tucker, he took off for FentonWorks. Even with the new buildings he could figure out which part of Amity he was in, and his house was closer than Casper High. Not even thinking to go intangible, he instead flew all around the new towers, pillars, and bridge supports, heading straight for home.

He found the row of townhouses that led to his brownstone were one of the few places in the city that still looked normal. The very top of the satellite had been knocked off due to a bridge support shooting up nearby, but Danny didn't catch that. He immediately threw the door open and ran inside, not even thinking to go back into human form.

"Dad?" he shouted. No answer. Now he was _really_ nervous, "_Dad?_" still no answer. His breathing getting heavier by the minute, he ran downstairs into the lab. What he saw almost made him scream like a madman.

His dad lay in a fetal position on the floor, as still as a rock. His breathing was barely audible, and breaths were few and far between. Big black blotches covered his face and clothes, and they weren't just black in colour. The streaks of black on his clothes were made up of the outfit of the ghost that had attacked Danny in the lab before, and the streak of black on his face covered his mouth, giving him the fangs. His jump suit had a razor-thin tear going all the way around it in the middle, though there was no actual wound.

Danny felt himself shaking, and he had to stumble a bit to keep himself up on his feet. No…he didn't…he couldn't have…

"Dad!" he took a few steps toward his father, and, after a bit of hesitation, gently shook him, trying to get him to move. For a moment, he seemed to stir, but soon he was back in a fetal position, just barely breathing. Danny pulled back as a shiver ran down his spine. He dreaded what the answer would be, but there was something else he had to find out. He slowly turned his head to the right.

The lab tables and their instruments had been reduced to wreckage and scraps, scorch marks covering the walls they once stood against. In the midst of all the rubble was his mother, her blue hazmat suit scorched from the spectral blast that must have shot out of Jack. Her breathing was a bit better off than Jack's, and she seemed like she'd be fine. That didn't give Danny any comfort, though; if he had done that to his dad from a cut…

"Jazz…Sam…" he felt himself gulp, the air feeling icy cold as it jumped down his throat. Going intangible, he quickly flew out of the house and sped as fast as he could toward Casper High.

The school had been turned into a horrible-looking building, with twisted sides like those of Expressionist paintings and bars on the windows. Danny wasn't too fond of school or the best student, but seeing it like this…it was a torture chamber. He didn't need to go inside for the nightmare to get any worse. Most of the students were out on the grounds. For some reason or other, no one had gone home yet. Everyone was acting in ways that they despised. Dash was wandering around, a wimpy nerd. Lancer was riding around the track field on a computer chair, howling like a lunatic and squirting tempera paint from a small tube all over the field. Paulina was sitting off in a corner at the benches, dressed up like a Goth girl and sulking.

A few feet off from the benches, in the field around the school, Danny caught sight of Jazz, sprawled out on the ground. She looked like she had been hit with some huge blast; her clothes were filthy, her sleeves and pants were torn at her elbows and knees, and she had several large marks on her face. Her feet had no shoes. They were pitch-black, and swept up into an almost-dead flame. Like Spectra's tail.

Danny immediately dropped down and ran over to her. Unlike Jack, he couldn't hear her breathing and she showed no signs of life. He gently lifted her head off the ground and shook her shoulders slightly. Nothing happened. He checked her pulse; it was faint, but it still registered. Danny breathed a sigh of relief and gently set Jazz's head back down. There was one more person he needed to check on.

Over on the other side of the benches, by a tree, was Sam. Her position against the tree made it seem as though she'd been slammed up against it with something heavy in her lap. Blotches of white covered her face, and some of her clothing matched the girl's from before. He could hear her breathing through painful moans. Danny tried moving forward to make sure she was all right, but he found he couldn't bring himself to move any closer. _How_ could he have done this?

He was barely aware of Tucker running up. He had guessed that this was where Danny was headed, and he had pieced together the rest of what that ghost must have done. He had seen what had happened, but the look on Danny's face sent chills down his spine.

"Danny…" he stared, "I –"

"Tucker," Danny cut him off, his voice so deadly serious that Tucker's chills were increased tenfold, "where's the ghost?"

"Down by the Nasty Burger. Why?"

"Run to my house and get some of my parent's weapons. Come back here. I'll get that ghost down here one way or another," Danny's words there were so cold that Tucker now began to visibly shiver.


	7. Backfired Plan

Chimera hovered above the Nasty Burger like a horrible black bat, his face twisted into a nasty smile and shots of red firing out from his sceptre, each hitting a target into the city and pulling it into the hellish architecture of all that surrounded it.

He had finally found a world to turn into his own kingdom of hate and despair. And here, he would not be faced with Walker and his men or any ghosts with the power to oppose him. That one ghost child would be in no state to fight after he realised what he had been caused to do. It was too late to stop him now anyway. The city had been swept up into his nightmare and the citizens' lives had turned on their heads. Everyone was now acting like the very things they had come to despise over all their years. The degree to which some of the transformations had taken their victims had proved truly frightening. Who knew the living were so hateful?

He wasn't about to complain, though. It had worked so marvelously to his advantage. And within a few minutes he would have conquered all the city. He let out a victorious sigh and closed his eyes.

"_Táim go maith_," he hissed contentedly.

"I don't know what you said, but you sounded happy," a voice called from behind him, "I'd say 'I'd hate to spoil your good mood,' but I'd be lying!" Chimera whirled around, and barely caught sight of a silver-gloved fist speeding towards his face before he was shot back, robes flapping around him as he fell and his sceptre almost falling from his grip. He had barely gotten himself back together when he felt another force; a hot, glowing, pure white one; ram into his body, setting off a shockwave that had him falling into a mangled old tree. Snarling, he flew out to meet his adversary – and was soon yanked back, gagging as his robes went up against his throat. They had gotten caught on the branches. Undaunted save for his pride, Chimera freed himself with a blast to the branches with his sceptre, but he had little time to find his assailant. A jab to the gut, a kick to the side, and a punch up against the chin shut his eyes and racked his body, followed by another spectral blast. His robes caught on one a street sign, causing him to flip over as he fell and fall face-first onto the cement. Now both his pride and his face were bruised (or whatever it is that happens to ghosts). Pulling himself up and ripping his robes free, he set his snarling sights on his foe; Danny Phantom, sporting an evil cocky grin and his eyes blazing bright green.

Danny looked down at the ghost, wearing a cocky grin on his face and letting his eyes glow green rather than just adopt a green colour. The ghost was glaring up at him, his face twisted into a nasty and hateful grimace. Danny just made his smile wider. Truth to tell, the last thing he felt like doing was smiling at his enemy and toying around with him, but heand Tucker had worked out a plan.

"What's the matter, Maleficent?" Danny shouted in a nasty mock-tone, "Having trouble with your dress?" the ghost reeled back for a moment at the insult, then, with a snarl, let loose a wave of red light from his sceptre. His lower half converting into a ghostly tail, Danny swiftly moved off to the side, almost like a gust of wind, the blast not even clipping him. Further aggrivated, the ghost flew up to Danny's level. He raised his hands up, then adopted the form of a green glowing cloud of smoke that took the form of a red-eyed bat. With a high-pitched sreech it lunged forward, attempting to make a strike. Danny quickly converted himself into ghostly vapour and flew apart, reassembling once the attack had passed him. As the ghost converted back to his original form Danny turned to face him, crossing his arms and putting his smug grin back on. The ghost aimed his sceptre at Danny's chest and let loose three red blasts. Danny dodged all of them, keeping his grin the whole time and leaving his arms crossed.

"Catch me if you can, girly!" he shouted in a taunting manner, and with that, he took off at full speed. The ghost stared after him for a moment with a look of indignation, then screeched and followed in pursuit.

"That's it, bat boy…" Danny muttered as he looked over his shoulder, "follow the leader," he took a hard left as they went on, went around in circles, went up and down, and took a hard left again. He wasn't trying to shake the ghost off his tail, and such complex flying patterns only made him tired, but the ghost was getting confused and frustrated, and that would cloud his judgement. Danny kept going around like a lunatic for a few minutes more, then pulled to a screeching stop in front of the school. He turned to face the ghost, who had an insane glint in his eye and his mouth pulled into a twisted, hateful grimace. Danny just smirked.

"Tuck, NOW!" he shouted. A strange humming noise started up below them. The ghost looked down…and just barely avoided being fried by a blast of green spectral energy fired out of the Fenton Bazooka. Tucker quicky fired off another shot, always keeping his eyes locked on the ghost as it tried to avoid being turned into green slime. Tucker let go of the bazooka with one hand to grab at the Jack-A-Nine-Tails. He let both weapons loose at the same time. The ghost was too busy dodging the weapons that he didn't see the blast Danny had fired, which made direct contact with his back and had him falling over himself in mid-air. Tucker now grabbed the Fenton Foamer he'd picked up from FentonWorks and fired that off, making a direct hit and causing the ghost to let out a painful screech, scrambling to brush the ooze off himself.

"Nice work, Tuck," Danny gave his friend a thumbs-up, "Now throw me the thermos!" Tucker just grinned.

"Let's mess around with him for a while," he called back up, "We've got him right where we…" he quickly cut his words short. The ghost threw up a dome of green around his body, blasting all the foam off him. His eyes going pure blood-red, he evaporated once again into green vapour that sucked itself into the sceptre's black jewel. The sceptre itself became a glowing orb of black and red, hovering in mid-air. Then, without warning, it launched itself into Danny's chest, sending shocks of black lighting all over his body. Screaming with agony, Danny tried to throw up a shield to knock whatever it was off him, but had no luck. The pain grew worse and worse by the second, and soon it appeared that his body would be snapped in two, and then…it stopped. His body went limp in mid-air. His eyes went half-shut, dark circles forming around his eyes as his vision slowly faded to blackness.


	8. Final Battle

Danny's vision slowly came back to him, as did his consciousness, and he began to straighten himself out. As his vision cleared up all the way, he blinked and looked around.

What lay before him appeared to be Amity Park as it would look if it were transformed into the Ghost-Zone. He could vaguely recognise the main buildings of the city and places he usually visited, but everything was black, green, and distorted from the spectral energy around them. Some parts of the city didn't even seem like they were all really there – like they were the ghosts of images long since past.

Danny had guessed at where he'd been sent, and what he saw disturbed him.

"OK…" he said to himself, "If this is my mind, then either it's like this 'cause I'm in ghost mode, or I need to let Jazz pull her psychology routine on me," he sighed, looked around a bit more, and began floating into the ghostly vision of his town.

The place appeared deserted. An occasional mass of green ectoplasm would come up from nowhere and float around, but neither man nor ghost seemed to inhabit this realm. Danny opened a few doors to houses, but all he saw were ghostly visions of their interiors. This version of Amity Park was the perfect definition for "ghost town."

Danny was just thinking that the emptiness of this place might serve Lancer's point that he needed to study more when a strange sound caught his ear. He couldn't understand it at first, but soon it gained clarity, and with that clarity, a chill ran down Danny's spine. The sound was that of a first encounter he remembered only too well.

"_I…I don't want to fight you!"_ his own voice said, some fear within it.

"_No. No you don't,"_ came the response. Danny whirled around, but saw no one.

"Who's there?" he shouted, but no answer came. Now suspicious, he continued floating onwards. As he went on, more sounds began to come to him, sounds he had heard before in battle and since in his nightmares.

"_Yes, well once your father is out of the way we'll see how you feel."_

"_Until next time…_son_."_

"_What are you? A ghost trying to fit in with humans? Or some creepy little boy with creepy little powers?"_ Danny suddenly fired off a spectral blast, hoping to eliminate wherever the voices were coming from. The blast hit nothing and travelled onward into nothingness, but it drowned out the voices for only a moment. As they came back, louder than before, his attempts to tune them out with ghost-immunity grew more futile, his flying more unstable, and sweat began forming on his face.

"_Oh, look! The little LOSER ghost has a few baby helpers!"_

"…_And by the time I'm done with you, you'll be sure it was all your fault!"_

"_I have more than just music for you. Now that they're chanting my name, my music _can_ affect you!"_ Danny threw his hands up to his head, the voices still echoing around inside his mind. It was getting to be too much. There had to be some place where he could escape these voices! He ran to the nearest door and opened it up, but for the second time today, he saw Sam kissing Dash, and immediately threw the door shut. He soon found himself leaning up against that door, gripping the doorknob for some support as the voices kept on coming.

"_You know what, punk? We've had just about enough of you!"_

"_They're here…kill Jack."_

"_Looks like I'm gonna have to do this the hard way!"_

"_I wouldn't need fifteen seconds, would I?"_

"_Feared on Earth and wanted in the Ghost-Zone – you've lost, ghost kid! LOST!"_ it was too much. With a scream, Danny threw up a huge dome of spectral energy that continued stretching and growing, his cry echoing after it in a mad attempt to get the memories silenced. Even after they'd vanished, even after his dome had completely overrun everything in sight within that realm, even after the ghostly Amity Park around him disintegrated, he continued screaming and pouring out his energy into the shield. It was a good long while before he finally calmed down, collapsing from exhaustion and taking his breaths in deep, heavy gasps.

He was now on the ground, still in the Ghost-Zone and in a valley surrounded by twisted, ghostly forestry. As Danny got the wind back in him and calmed down, he rose to his feet, looking around the valley. Five mirrors rose from the ground and surrounded him like a pentagon. None of them showed a reflection. Moving his feet so that he went around in a circle, Danny looked at all the mirrors one at a time, trying to figure out what was going on. As he completed his circle and came to the mirror behind him at his right for a second time, he saw Johnny 13 standing in the mirror, looking slightly confused and tired. Scooting back a few inches, Danny adopted a battle stance, as did Johnny in the mirror. His stance was a perfect mirror image of Danny's, right down to how many of his teeth were bared. The close likeness of their stances put Danny at unease. Keeping a suspicious look on his face, he slowly stepped down into a normal stance. Johnny did the same, movements and expression matching perfectly. Danny slowly moved his fingers toward the mirror – and Johnny did the same. Their hands met, but Danny felt nothing but glass. Johnny was his reflection. Danny felt his face get hotter and a trickle of sweat drip down his face at this realisation.

His breathing starting to get heavy again, Danny turned to the mirror behind him at his left. There also his reflection was that of a ghost – this time it was Ember in the mirror. He turned again, and on the mirror up from his right, there was Spectra. And in the mirror up from his left, Walker. At this, Danny finally snapped. Sliding back a few inches, he let out a blast at the mirror holding Walker, but it just seemed to absorb into the glass, leaving no trace save for some leftover ecto-smoke. With a gulp, Danny looked straight ahead to the last mirror in the centre – the one still left empty. Slowly a figure faded into view within the glass, this one not matching Danny's stance. His head was held down low, the rest of his body held up confidently. The angle of his head hid his face, but Danny recognised the Wolverine hair and white and red cloak over the body only too well. After a few moments passed, the figure slowly raised his head up to reveal the sinister grin of Vlad Plasmius. As he lifted his head up, he slowly rose off the ground within the mirror, his cape starting to gently flap around him. He bent his arms at his elbows, clenching his hands into fists. As he did this, all the mirrors suddenly melted away, and Danny and Vlad were left in a world of complete black, where ghostly violet flames were shooting up in a circle around them. The flames began moving in all around, at too quick a speed to get a shield up. With no time for anything else, Danny threw his arms over his head and clenched his eyes shut, waiting for the burns to start kicking in – and soon found a feeling of emptiness around him, all sound and atmosphere dead. Slowly he opened his eyes and lowered his arms.

He was now in a graveyard like the one he had accidentally crashed down to on his first visit to the Ghost-Zone. The black iron gate around the graves seemed miles away, and the headstones, though numbering in the thousands, seemed sparse and far off as well. He didn't have much time to take in the scenery, however – in a bat-like swoop of green, the ghost that had cast this spell came up from the ground. He had his eyes locked on Danny and his sceptre in his right hand, his left hand covering the black diamond on top. His stare wasn't the icy calm look of before. It was cold, hard, piercing, and hateful, and it sent chills running down all of Danny's nerves.

"_Tá mé ar buille!_" the ghost hissed. He pulled back his left hand with force, and a wave of spectral power leapt out, making a direct landing on Danny's body and sending him crashing him back into a tombstone. He recovered quickly enough, but he could have sworn he knew that kind of attack from somewhere. He soon got his answer – in a cloud of hot blue drifting out of the ghost's sceptre came a sneering Ember, hair back up in its flame and guitar in hand. Danny got up to face her, but felt something collide into his right side, and soon was on the ground, face-first. His head snapped up at the sound of a motorcycle drawing near, and he just barely managed to roll to the side in time before Johnny 13's bike went over him. Getting back on his feet, he saw that Shadow was who had hit him in the side before. Giving him no time to recover, his foes moved in. Ember let loose another spell from her guitar that Danny jumped up to avoid. Shadow then moved in for an attack, and Danny took off flying, Shadow and its master right behind him. Danny had picked up on his speed since he last faced the real Johnny and Shadow, and he had the motive of trying to avoid being killed edging him on, so he managed to stay well ahead of them. But as he looked back to check his distance, a line of ecto-laser ripped across his back horizontally and sent him spiralling down to the grown, crashing face-first into another tombstone and smashing it into ruins. Walker floated down grinning, spinning his weapon on his finger like a sheriff from an old Western. Snarling under his breath, Danny pulled himself together and knocked Walker away with a spectral blast, then jumped to the side as he heard Johnny coming up behind him. But no sooner had he landed than Spectra flew up from the ground in a swirl of smoke and fog, red and violet flames shooting out of her hands and onto Danny's left arm. Unlike the flames from Vlad before, these _did_ burn. With a yelp, Danny jumped back from the pain. He quickly grabbed his uniform at the elbow and tore off the burning part, tossing it to the ground like a glove and blowing on his arm in an attempt to lessen the burning. This distracted him enough that he didn't fully realise that Ember had caught him from behind until he was pushed forward (Spectra moving aside) and landed face-first on the ground once again.

This foes gathered in a circle around him, the one ghost drifting over to be right in Danny's eye line. He sported as nasty a grin as ever and has his sceptre lifted up high above his head. Danny felt he knew what was coming – there was only one more of his most hated enemies left.

'_Come on,'_ he thought to himself, _'I need something – anything. I need –'_ suddenly, a bolt of lightning leapt out of nowhere and struck the ghost right in the chest, knocking him back and sending the sceptre flying. Danny and the conjured figures of his foes stared where the ghost had stood in shock for a moment. Then it hit Danny.

"Ah!" he hit himself on the head, "I'm such an idiot! If this is my mind, then I can control what happens!" with this revelation, he suddenly grinned and phased down into the ground. He reappeared behind his foes as they huttled around where he had laid.

"HA!" he shouted, getting their attention, "Some supervillains you are! Can't keep track of your opponent?" they all glared at him nastily, charging forward soon afterward.

"There we go," Danny muttered before flying up and out of the way. Shadow caught his movement and turned, flying at Danny with a snarl. Danny just grinned even wider. He thought for a minute and soon a blinding stream of pure white light shot out of nowhere and made a dead-on collision with Shadow. It let out a scream of pain and soon evaporated into nothing. His power now gone, Johnny slowly faded away.

"Two down," Danny counted, "Three to go," he set his sights on Walker, who had his laser ready. His case was a bit tricky, but Danny remembered what had got him last time and concentrated on that. Just as Walker was about to fire, Wulf leapt from oblivion and slashed just in front of Walker's chest, opening a tear into another dimension. Grabbing Walker, he jumped in, and the portal closed behind them.

Now he thought about Jazz's quick use of the Fenton Ghost Peeler. The device soon appeared in his hand. Before Spectra could move he hit the high-energy setting and let loose a huge blast of green, completely vaporising the ghost.

Now it was just Ember. Tossing the Ghost Peeler aside, Danny put on another grin. This one would be fun. He floated down to the ground, standing directly across from Ember. She was bent down low, her guitar positioned as if it were a sheathed sword she was prepared to draw. Danny made his grin more smug and covered his ears. He though back to the night of her concert, got the image he wanted, and waited. Tucker soon appeared, dressed in his Ember clothes and with a microphone in hand. He soon broke into his horrendous rendition of Ember's song, filling the graveyard with his obnoxiously horrible singing voice. Ember also put her hands to her ears, but it was too late for her. Her hair had already faded away, and soon, both she and Tucker vanished. Danny unplugged his ears let his smile become one of relief.

"Alright," he sighed, "Now I just need to –" a red spectral blast spiralled up from behind him and met him right in the back, pulling him into the air for a few seconds and then dropping him down to the ground like a rock. The ghost had recovered his sceptre and had gotten his wind back, and he was not happy at all. He almost threw himself at Danny, his sceptre raised high above his head like a sword. Danny just barely managed to conjure up a Fenton Stockades sword to parry the blow with. Even after the parry the ghost pressed in as close as he could, so close that Danny could feel the cold of his ghostly form coming up against his face. They remained locked in their position, each trying to gain ground and each failing to have any success. Their faces were pulled into tight grimaces, Danny gritting his teeth and the ghost letting out snake-like hisses as they continued pushing at one another. After several minutes of no progress, the ghost's eyes darted from Danny to the ground and then up to his sceptre. Through clenched teeth he began to hiss out a spell.

"_Níl mé go maith!_" he screeched. A beam of red leapt out of the diamond, and the ground below Danny began to change. The tombstones began crumbling to pieces, and the fence seemed to be sucked into the ground. The ground around them – save for the bit that the ghost rested his feet on – was consumed by a flow of lava. Danny immediately cringed as the molten rock seeped up to consume his leg, burning away at his boots.

"Solid ground…" he muttered, trying to concentrate, "_Solid ground!_" the magma soon cooled into rock, and Danny went to the task of putting his foot out. But the ghost had caught the action and fired off another beam at his foot, trying to keep the flame going. Their duel with their weapons now became a duel of wills, the burning on Danny's foot going up and down depending on who was dominating at the moment.

Danny's eyes had been at his foot, but now he looked up at the sceptre.

"That jewel…" he muttered, "It's his power. If I can just…" green blasts of spectral power suddenly leapt from his eyes, meeting the ghost square in the face and smacking him back, Danny's foot going out and the sceptre falling to the ground. Danny was a bit shocked that he had picked up a new ability at the opportune moment, but he wasn't about to complain. He dived for the sceptre, grabbing it by the jewel. He prepared to destroy it with a concentrated spectral wave. But before he could, the ghost leapt back up and grabbed the handle of the sceptre, and a red wave echoed out of the diamond, pushing Danny's hands away. Danny started up his own wave, pushing back. The sound of the waves colliding shout out between them in loud, shaking booms, causing the ground around them to shake. After a few minutes, a bolt of red lightning leapt out of the space. Then another. Soon both sound and light were pouring out, shaking the world they were in with such force that it was damn near impossible to stand. And suddenly, with one final shockwave, both combatants were fired back. Danny flew all the way back. Up into the sky…past the sky. Into darkness, then light, then darkness again. He seemed to fill up from the inside, as if everything in his body had been removed and was now coming back to him. Soon his real eyes opened, his real body spread out, real air returned to his lungs, and something leapt out of his body. He was out of his mind and back in the real world.

He had started looking over himself when a blast of red caught him in the head and knocked him to the side. The ghost was what had come out of him, and he was snarling like crazy, his sceptre blazing and ready to strike.

"Yo, Bat-ghost!" a voice shouted below. A shot from the Fenton Bazooka knocked the ghost away, and as he was blasted, his sceptre began to fall. Danny dived down, caught it, raised it up, and hit the ground hard, brought the sceptre down harder, and shattered the jewel into pieces.

"Head's up!" the voice called again. Tucker, who had never moved, tossed Danny the thermos. Wasting no time, he spun around, opened it up, and snared the ghost in its beam. The ghost, screeching like a bat caught in a cage, tried to escape, but he could not. The second he was inside, Danny snapped the lid shut. Tucker walked over and they high-fived each other.

Immediately the town began to fall back into itself. Buildings and bridges untwisted from their hellish state and returned to normal. Trees re-gained their leaves. Signs straightened. The sky even seemed to lighten a little, even though the sun was almost completely set. And all the people began settling back to normal. Those who had their outfits transformed re-gained their original clothes. People who had been acting in ways they never would have normally settled down, holding their heads in confusion. (Lancer, who was in the middle of his tenth time around the track field, suddenly regained his state of self, and, in the process of trying to figure out in the name of T.H. White he was doing, lost control of the computer chair and crashed into the bleachers). Danny looked over at the tree by the benches. Sam had sat up straight, looking like her old self and holding her head in confusion.

"Sam!" Danny shouted. He was so relieved she was alright, so relieved that there was no lasting damage that, completely forgetting that he was still in ghost mode in the midst of all his now normal classmates, he ran over to her and grabbed her in a big hug that had Sam gaining an awkward expression. Catching himself, Danny let go and went back into human mode.

"What happened?" Sam asked, still a little dazed. Danny smiled and sighed.

"Tuck'll fill you in. I've got to check on Jazz. You sure you're OK?"

"Yeah," Sam smiled back, "I'm fine," Danny nodded and got up as Tucker came over. He ran around to the other side of the benches, where Jazz was sitting up and holding her head too. She was still bruised and battered, but otherwise looked normal.

"Danny?" she asked in a confused voice as she saw him come over, "What happened?"

"Oh…" Danny thought quickly, "There was a, uh…gas leak. We were evacuated outside. Are you OK?" she nodded. Danny smiled, helped her up, and ran back over to Tucker and Sam. After he left, Jazz smiled. She'd seen the ghost come at her before everything went blank, but she wasn't going to force Danny to talk.

Danny, Sam and Tucker walked home together, the sun now completely down and the stars draping the sky over Amity Park. Danny had called home with the gas leak excuse to see if his parents were all right – they were. They were sore, and Jack was now putting the house on Ghost Lockdown in case the ghost came back, but they had also recovered. Sam was still holding her head – Tucker had let her in on everything, and after she calmed down about finding out she had become a cross between Paulina and Ember, she realised the ghost still left her with a headache. Tucker looked worn out himself – he was carrying all the equipment back.

"Quite a day, huh?" he said. Danny and Sam nodded.

"You think everything's back to normal?" Sam asked.

"All's Well that Ends Well!" all three of them turned at the sound of Lancer's shouting. Their English teacher was running from The Box Ghost, who had a box in his hands raised above his head.

"You cannot escape from the might of The Box Ghost!" the little nimrod laughed, "For now that I have armed myself with my corrugated cardboard harbingers of doom, I am unstoppable!" Across the street, Tucker and Sam looked at Danny.

"Well…" he sighed, "as normal as it ever gets," making sure Lancer couldn't see, he went ghost and flew towards The Box Ghost, a kick ready.

**_The End!_**


End file.
